


The proactive approach

by lunaemoth



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Assassination Plot(s), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:15:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22525396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunaemoth/pseuds/lunaemoth
Summary: Corvo has the occasion to interact with the Whalers before the assassination of the Empress, and he has a more proactive stance on how to protect Jessamine...
Relationships: Corvo Attano & Daud
Comments: 4
Kudos: 85





	The proactive approach

**Author's Note:**

> I was cleaning up my drafts and thought that this one could work as a one-shot.  
> I believe I started it thinking that it was strange how few friends Jessamine seemed to have...  
> I hope you like it! :)

Scouting a new target’s residence and following them to know their habits wasn’t always the most thrilling part of a contract, which was precisely why it was a novice’s job. 

Galia was eager to get promoted to get rid of this tedious chore. She glanced at Aeolos. The man never seemed bored nor impatient, confident that he would follow in his elder brother’s steps as a master assassin in due time. Aedan was his role model, and they shared the same quiet disposition.

In the mansion on the other side of the road, their target was putting her children to bed with her usual timeliness.

“Her evening schedule is always the same,” Galia pointed out with a bored sigh. “What a quiet little life.”

“She restricts her nights out to once or twice a week. The hardest part would be to predict them, it seems to depend on the Empress’ whims,” Aeolos added.

“We just need to pick a day where we are sure she won’t be out. Since she avoids her brother-in-law, that would do the trick.”

Aeolos grunted in agreement. When he shifted to glance at her, Galia noticed his recoil and his hands going for his knife. Too late.

She was grabbed from behind, a strong arm pressing around her neck and pulling her backward. She had a blade to her throat before she could hope to resist.

“Don’t move,” a deep masculine voice ordered. “Either of you. I won’t hurt you if you answer a few questions.”

Aeolos could have transversed behind her assailant and ended this in a blink, but he raised his hands slowly in a show of compliance. Galia didn’t think he cared so much for her, so why did he hesitate? 

“What can we do for you, Lord Protector?” Aeolos asked softly.

Ah. The Royal Protector would require a bit more caution than most.

“Lady Appleton is a friend of the Empress who doesn’t appreciate your interest. How can the contract on her head be canceled?”

Aeolos hesitated but replied cautiously: “A contract can only be called off by our client.”

“And if the client is dead?”

“That… would do it,” Aeolos agreed.

There was a heavy silence before the blade was withdrawn, and Galia was violently pushed forward. Aeolos caught her before she fell from the roof.

“Don’t rush your contract. You might not be paid in the morning,” the Royal Protector warned before disappearing on the other side of the roof.

“You’re telling Daud,” Galia blurted out before either of them recovered from the ordeal. 

Aeolos tilted his head mockingly and asked: “Still bored?”

“Fuck you.” 

oOo

Daud stepped into the office of his client cautiously. He had checked with Void Gaze that the room was empty except for the corpse he had expected, but he was still wary of any surprise the Royal Protector might have left behind. There were no traps, however, only an envelope with his name on it next to the body of Lord Appleton — smothered, by the look of it. 

Taking the message with gloved hands, Daud slowly opened it and checked its contents. A simple sentence was written, unsigned: “You may want to better choose your contracts.” A warning and a threat all in one, with a sharp layer of politeness. The words of a man who would keep his sword down until a wrong move would get you a swift death. 

Humming in thought, Daud glanced at his dead client and his untouched office. He had to hand it to the Royal Protector: for a bodyguard, he dabbled quite professionally in assassinations, and he had entered the manor without raising the alarm or using any supernatural abilities… If he was a mercenary, Daud would hire him on the spot. 

“Well?” Billie asked as she stepped in.

“It seems Virginia Appleton is off limit,” Daud commented as he pocketed the message and opened the drawers of the desk. 

“Permanently?”

“I have a hunch that Corvo Attano is a man I’d rather stay away from if I have any choice. Look for the safe’s code. We might as well pay ourselves for severance. ”

Billie moved to obey but pointed out: “Making exceptions isn’t like you.”

“It doesn’t happen often,” he admitted but didn’t say more. His decisions shouldn’t be questioned, neither by himself — second-guessing his instincts never went well — or by his men. 

oOo A year later oOo

Lady Virginia’s nervousness was discreet but undeniable. Sitting stiffly on a stone bench in a remote corner of her lush gardens, she wrung her gloved hands and glanced repeatedly at Corvo for reassurance. 

Standing with his hands crossed behind his back, Corvo was facing her to calm her as well as limiting their blind spots. He had briefed her thoroughly beforehand. The responsibilities he gave her filled her with as much pride as anxiety. 

The thirty-four years old plump woman was a fierce supporter of Empress Jessamine and an enthusiast adventure reader, but she was not cut for action. Corvo would have preferred not to involve her in this matter, but this was the most sensible approach. 

He noticed movement from the corner of his eyes, and he tilted his head to hide his face deeper under the hood of his banal dark coat. It wouldn’t do to be identified prematurely and potentially scare away their contact. Corvo wasn’t sure they would care, but he couldn’t afford to lose them if he did. 

“They’re here,” he informed Virginia. When she tensed, he reminded her gently: “Breathe. Remember what we spoke about.”

She nodded and cleared her throat, smoothing her skirt to busy her hands. Her strawberry blond hair and pale skin were highlighted by the full moon’s glow, but the contrast with her dark dress wasn’t in her favor. She looked somewhat like a ghost.

A few streets away, a clock loudly struck eleven. On the last strike, a man appeared near a round-shaped shrub, standing a few meters away, silent and imposing by his sudden arrival, just in time. 

Lady Virginia had frozen at the sight, a hand raised to her heart, as she stared, wide-eyed, at the apparition of an assassin whose face was plastered all over the city.

Watching from the corner of his eyes, Corvo took note of the visible weapons, guessed at some concealed ones, and expected there were more to be found. He could admit to himself that Daud cut an impressive figure in his red coat and the expressionless scarred mask which could be called a face. 

He had stolen Virginia’s composure and voice. Corvo could have come to her help, but it was still premature.

“Lady Appleton,” Daud finally spoke up, probably impatient.

“Yes?” she squeaked in a too-high voice. She cleared her throat hastily and tried again, stubbornly keeping her eyes away from Corvo, like he had asked of her, to not betray his importance. “Yes. Mh. I have a job offer for you, Mister uh… Daud, but I had a question… several actually, before—”

“Ask them,” Daud interrupted somberly.

Virginia bit her lip and wrung the tips of her gloves, but her voice had steadied. She was familiar with negotiations. Since her husband and brother-in-law’s deaths, she was in charge of the family business after all. “If you’re presented with two opposing job offers, how do you proceed?”

“First come, first served.”

“Even if you’re paid more?”

“Once I accept a contract, I finish it. I don’t do double deals.”

“Right, you have a… reputation,” she murmured, before asking louder: “And how do I know you haven’t already received an offer contradicting mine?”

Daud tilted his head forward, his eyes darkening under his brows. “If I had, we wouldn’t be here.”

“No. I mean… It’s not about  _ me _ . I’m like…  _ me _ ,” she stuttered with a nervous laugh. “Boring, unimportant me,” she babbled, waving a hand in front of her before pulling herself together. “I’m… an intermediary, if you will, for… someone more important.”

“I see you have been keeping secrets, Lord Protector,” Daud commented impassively.

Corvo straightened slowly and faced the assassin, wondering when he had been recognized: before or after he had appeared?

“Lady Appleton is aware of your past interest in her,” he replied. 

“Oh. Oh, yes, there was…  _ that _ . But, you know, it was when my brother-in-law was… still here,” Virginia babbled, “and now that he isn’t, who would care about me? So… uh… Let’s not talk about me?” she squeaked, looking up at Corvo pleadingly.

Obliging, he asked bluntly: “Do you have a contract on her Imperial Majesty?” 

Daud raised an eyebrow. “Not at this time.”

Virginia sighed in relief. Corvo relaxed somewhat and crossed his arms in front of his chest, pushing back the throwing knife he had prepared in the hidden sheath under his sleeve. He adjusted his posture, turning toward his interlocutor instead of keeping his eye on the silhouette he could perceive on a nearby roof.

“We have reasons to believe that you’ll soon be offered one,” Corvo explained. “We’d like to hire you preemptively.”

The assassin seemed unbothered by the prospect of being hired to kill an Empress or an eventual employer. “Do you have a name?”

“Yes, but you misunderstand, we do not want him assassinated.” Well, Corvo wouldn’t have minded, but Jessamine had insisted the traitor should face justice. “Once you’re offered the contract, we want you to use the opportunity to find the evidence necessary to prosecute him and his accomplices.”

“I’m an assassin, not a spy, bodyguard.”

“I’m told you can be both. In the end, the skills and the coins are the same, only less bathed in blood,” Corvo pointed out. 

Their eyes met and held each other for a few long seconds. Patient, Corvo waited for Daud to make his decision. If he was worth anything, he would make the right one. Otherwise, Corvo would convince Jessamine to make his death a priority.

“I take half in advance. Wage rises with difficulty.” Daud finally stated. 

“Of course.” Corvo glanced toward Virginia, who held out the purse hidden among her skirt. Corvo accepted the heavy bag and showed it off. “Is a thousand sufficient?”

“It will do,” Daud agreed. “The name?”

“Spymaster Hiram Burrows.”

Daud snorted. “I see. How do I keep in touch?”

“Lady Virginia can relay any message you have.”

“Yes, but uh, please don’t scare me to death when you drop by?” she piped up with a finger raised. 

“I’ll keep it in mind.” 

At Daud’s expectant pause, Corvo threw him the purse. The assassin disappeared in the next breath. 

oOo

“The Royal Protector? Really?”

“I knew that bodyguard was suspicious. What bodyguard wears a hood?”

“The kind who doesn’t want to be recognized, clearly.”

The Whalers stopped gossiping as soon as Daud glanced their way, stony-faced. Only Billie had the guts to ask:

“Well? What do you plan to do?”

Daud glanced toward the garden, where Corvo Attano was escorting Virginia Appleton back to her mansion. His first impression of the Royal Protector had been the right one: he was good at his job and not the kind of man you wanted to cross.

“What we were hired to do. This is a job like any other,” Daud replied. 

“It’s not every day you get the occasion to turn your back on one of our more regular employers,” his second pointed out.

“No, it’s not,” Daud agreed before turning toward their way back home, “so let’s enjoy it.”

“Void, yes,” a Whaler — who sounded like Galia — murmured, “I can’t stand that Spymaster prick.”

“Welcome to the club,” Daud commented dryly before transversing on a higher roof. 

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me at https://ashkaarishok.tumblr.com/


End file.
